gpflaum%UMASS.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu (Greg Pflaum) (04/09/88)
I need some help getting minix to work with my 40 meg hard disk. It is
a Miniscribe 3650 with a Western Digital controller, but I don't know
which controller. Here are all the markings on it; I hope someone can
identify the model.
WDXT-GEN ASSY 61-000222-00 on a square chip
WDC (c) 1987 (c)WDC '85
WD11C00-JT
on a sticker 17-02 8745
61000222-06 F300 941001105
222-0612G 49875
8092846 REV."X7"
This 40 meg disk has 6 heads and 809 cylinders, which is over the
32 meg DOS limit. The low level format program lets me either format
the whole disk or split it so that DOS thinks it sees two disks.
If I format the whole disk I can't use the regular DOS FDISK, and have
to use a special XFDISK which can handle the larger disk.
Here's the problem: I can't set up a Minix partition without clobbering
a DOS partition. /dev/hd5 doesn't work when I use the low level format
to look like two disks, and /dev/hd2 gives me errors when I try to do
mkfs. I have recompiled fdisk for 6 heads. I've tried putting Minix in
the first partition, which works but messes up the DOS side. I've tried
a lot of other things, and I've lost track of the number of low level
and DOS formats I've done.
Any suggestions?
Greg Pflaum
GPflaum@UMass.Bitnet
Pflaum@UMass.CSNet
"Not available in stores."nick@nswitgould.OZ (Nick Andrew) (04/11/88)
In article <1975@louie.udel.EDU>, gpflaum%UMASS.BITNET@mitvma.mit.edu (Greg Pflaum) says: > > I need some help getting minix to work with my 40 meg hard disk. > ... > This 40 meg disk has 6 heads and 809 cylinders, which is over the > 32 meg DOS limit. The low level format program lets me either format > the whole disk or split it so that DOS thinks it sees two disks. Low-level format your drive so it is one drive. I thought the low level format was the same whether it is to be (to messydos) one or two drives. I haven't written to the last 8 mb of my drive with Minix yet :-) > If I format the whole disk I can't use the regular DOS FDISK, and have > to use a special XFDISK which can handle the larger disk. Use DOS fdisk to set up the size of dos partition that you like. Eg: I don't have a dos partition at all :-) > Here's the problem: I can't set up a Minix partition without clobbering > a DOS partition. Don't worry about it. After the partitions are set up how you like them, copy the dos back onto the hard disk. > /dev/hd5 doesn't work when I use the low level format > to look like two disks, and /dev/hd2 gives me errors when I try to do > mkfs. /dev/hd5-9 looks at the second PHYSICAL drive. dos LOGICAL drives have nothing to do with Minix! /dev/hd1-4 are the first to fourth partitions of the first physical drive. You cannot run mkfs on them until you have some Minix partitions set up. > I have recompiled fdisk for 6 heads. I've tried putting Minix in > the first partition, which works but messes up the DOS side. Did you reverse the order of the "overlap" tests at the end of Fdisk? Check and ensure that, reading from the bottom up, there is no overlap and the number of sectors counted by fdisk is the number which are actually stored in the partition (ie N cylinders = N * 17 * H sectors). Don't forget mkfs uses BLOCKS as its size parameter, 1k blocks, not sectors. I got hung up for a while wondering why I couldn't format more than about 10,000 sectors per partition. Nick. > Any suggestions? Wait for Minix 2.0 ?